PFAS lawsuit chosen as top story of ‘23

With 2024 fast approaching, the time has come to look back on the top local news stories of the year that was 2023.

Readers may rightly wonder why so many media outlets insist on producing these lists year after year. We can’t speak for anyone else but we believe it’s healthy to celebrate our successes, measure our progress, recognize our lapses and mourn our losses.

With that said, our choice for the top local story of 2023 is directly related to last year’s selection.

A year ago we chose the continuing mystery of PFAS contamination in local wells as the top story of the year. This year, our choice is a federal lawsuit filed in August by Town of Stella property owners alleging that the Rhinelander paper mill, owned by Ahlstrom-Munksjo, as well as the 3M corporation (which they allege provided the chemicals) are responsible for the contamination of their wells.

Readers may challenge this selection on the grounds that we’re treading too familiar ground. That’s a fair argument and one we carefully considered.

Ultimately, the determining factor was the magnitude of the paper mill’s impact on the community, both historically and to this very day.

Its name has changed a few times over the last 120 years but the Rhinelander paper mill has long been the undisputed centerpiece of business and industry in the Hodag city. From its iconic smokestacks to the brick building, Rhinelander and the mill are practically synonymous. To know one is to know the other. At one time, it was difficult to find anyone in the city who did not have a friend or relative employed there. Many had more than one family member working at the mill, as it has provided family-supporting wages to generations of Rhinelander residents.

Even today, rarely does a week go by when this newspaper does not publish an obituary that includes a reference to the paper mill.

What does it mean for a community when a business with such deeply embedded roots finds itself at the center of a lawsuit involving the contamination of drinking water? That is the question that will eventually be answered, possibly in 2024.

As we are not clairvoyant, and not one of us has a law degree, we truly have no idea how this litigation will play out. However, we can confidently say that the resolution of this lawsuit, however that happens, will be extremely consequential for the community.

As a refresher, the plaintiffs’ argument is that the historical practice of spreading sludge from the Rhinelander mill on fields in Stella led to high levels of dangerous PFAS chemicals in some wells in Stella. 3M is a defendant in the lawsuit because, the plaintiffs allege, it provided the chemicals in question to the mill.

It should be stressed that the defendants have yet to file a formal written answer to the plaintiffs’ complaint. According to online federal court records, the plaintiffs intend to file an amended complaint by early February and the defendants are expected to file their individual responses by late March.

Where the case goes from there, we will all have to wait and see.

2. Merrill teens Aiden Grefe and Dakota Brown found dead in the Oneida County Forest

The second entry on our list is a tragedy that continues to reverberate throughout the Northwoods. Grefe and Brown were reported missing on an unusually mild weekend in April. In a horrific turn of events, temperatures dropped significantly during the hours they were unaccounted for and, despite a massive search, rescuers were unable to locate them in time to save their lives. They were eventually recovered on county forest land in the Town of Enterprise. This fall, after an investigation that lasted approximately six months, Lincoln County authorities announced the teens’ cause of death was hypothermia and no criminal charges will be filed.

3. The changing of the guard in Oneida County Circuit Court

In August, former Oneida County district attorney Michael Schiek took the Branch I bench, succeeding Patrick F. O’Melia who retired at the end of July 2022. Mary Roth Burns, the first woman circuit judge in the county’s history, served the remainder of O’Melia’s term following an appointment from the governor’s office, but Schiek defeated her when the two went head-to-head in the April election. Then, as the year came to a close, Branch II Oneida County circuit judge Michael Bloom announced he would not run for another term in 2024, creating another judicial vacancy. So far, Oneida County corporation counsel Mike Fugle, who was unsuccessful in running against Schiek in 2023, is the only candidate for the judicial seat Bloom has decided to vacate. 

4. (A lot of) road construction 

In the fall of 2022, Rhinelander mayor Kris Hanus warned the community that there were a number of road and infrastructure projects coming in 2023 and that warning was certainly no understatement. Motorists spent months taking alternate routes, and trying to figure out the best way to travel from Point A to Point B, as multiple state and city projects took place simultaneously. Mercifully, motorists’ patience has been rewarded with a number of updated and/or reconstructed roadways including U.S. Highways 8, State Highway 17, Oneida Avenue (and surrounding streets), Timber Drive and more.

5. Dinky Diner fire 

On March 28, the City of Rhinelander lost a historic building when R & T’s Dinky Diner (230 Thayer St.) burned down. The loss of the popular eatery located in the heart of the “The Hollow,” one of the city’s oldest neighborhoods, was devastating to its many fans but the owners have vowed to move on and reopen in a different location.

6. Defamation lawsuit

River News and Lakeland Times publisher Gregg Walker won what is thought to be the largest defamation award in the state’s history following a jury trial in late October. Minocqua Brewing Company owner Kirk Bangstad was ordered to pay $750,000 after a jury unanimously found that he defamed Walker by repeatedly and falsely referring to him as a misogynist and crook, by falsely claiming that Walker contributed to his brother’s death in a hunting accident 36 years ago and abused his elderly father, and that the newspaper called Minocqua chamber of commerce executive director Krystal Westfahl an egregious slur related to cognitive disorders. The jury found all the claims to be false — Bangstad himself acknowledged as much on the claim surrounding Walker’s brother’s death — and awarded Walker $40,000 each on the “misogynist,” “crook,” and Westfahl defamations; $200,000 on the claims surrounding his brother and father; and the jury further awarded Walker $430,000 in punitive damages on the latter claims, determining that Bangstad acted with express malice.

7. SDR tech ed referendum

In April 2024, voters living within the borders of the School District of Rhinelander will be asked to answer the following question:  “Shall the School District of Rhinelander, Oneida, Lincoln, and Langlade Counties, Wisconsin be authorized to issue pursuant to Chapter 67 of the Wisconsin Statutes, general obligation bonds in an amount not to exceed $26,000,000 for the public purpose of paying the cost of a school building and facility improvement project consisting of: construction of additions and renovations at Rhinelander High School, including for technical education, classrooms and labs; construction of additions, renovations, safety, security and site improvements at James Williams Middle School, including for technical education and classrooms; district-wide capital maintenance, infrastructure improvements and accessibility updates; and acquisition of furnishings, fixtures and equipment?” The district’s board of education approved the referendum language in November following an internal study of the district’s current tech ed facilities, a community survey and several public input sessions.

8. Mother sues school board, superintendent over treatment of child

In late October, Brooke Johnson-Paquette filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin on behalf of her child. In her complaint, she alleges the school board and school superintendent Eric Burke “repeatedly refused to recognize or respect (her child’s) gender identity” and (undertook) “a series of discriminatory and highly stigmatizing actions against them based on their sex, gender identity, and nonbinary status.” The district has yet to file a written response to the lawsuit. According to online court records, the defendant’s answer is expected in early January.

9. New city administrator takes the reins

In February, Patrick Reagan took over as the city’s new administrator. The former manager/clerk for the Village of Lake Odessa, Mich. succeeded Zack Vruwink who left in October 2022 to take a job with the League of Wisconsin Municipalities. The City of Rhinelander has a complicated history with regard to the administrator position, having employed four full-time administrators and two interim administrators in the 12 years before Vruwink took the job. “He’s coming in with a lot of energy and spark to get stuff done,” Mayor Kris Hanus said of Reagan.

10. Well test site chosen

In late November, the City of Rhinelander announced that two test wells are to be dug near city wells No. 4 and No. 5, at the bottom of the hogsback hill on Oneida Avenue, as part of the city’s continuing effort to ensure there will be sufficient clean drinking water available for generations of future residents. The goal is to drill a new well, to be designated as Well No. 9, to alleviate pressure on the city’s current wells, two of which (Nos. 7 and 8) have been offline since 2019 due to dangerous levels of PFAS.